Lamar Williams – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Allman Brothers – Ramblin’ Man

I’ve written a ton of Allman Brother posts but for some odd reason, I never wrote bout this one…their biggest hit. I never thought it was their best song but I do love Dickey Betts’s guitar work in this one. It was on their album “Brothers and Sisters” and it hit a chord with pop culture. Two popular shows at the time The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie fit in with the family theme.

After finishing Eat A Peach after Duane died…they started to work on Brothers and Sisters. They refused to replace Duane Allman with another guitar player. They didn’t want someone at that time just mimicking Duane. While they were recording the album, Gregg Allman recorded his first solo album, Laid Back. He was working with a fantastic piano player named Chuck Leavell. Gregg later invited Chuck to join the Allman Brothers and the Brothers agreed he would fit perfectly and give them a different sound.

Barry Oakley was in disarray at this time after Duane died. For a year he was spiraling down with drugs and drink. In September of 1972, Chuck joined the band and Barry Oakley was excited. It was the first time that he seemed like his old self again since Duane passed. He took Leavell under his wing and showed him the ropes of being in that band.

Leavell said he was fantastic and some of the band thought that Oakley may have been coming out of it and back to himself. That was not to be. On November 11, 1972, Berry Oakley died in a motorcycle crash within a few blocks of where Duane crashed a year and 13 days earlier. He played on two songs on this album…Wasted Words and Ramblin’ Man. Lamar Williams replaced him and finished the album on bass.

Dicky Betts knew a country guy he was friends with and the guy always told him…” are you still playing your guitar and doing the best that you can?” The phrase stuck with Betts. He had the germ of the idea before The Allman Brothers started. Before Duane was killed the band played around with the song in some rehearsals in Gatlinburg.

He was hesitant to record the song. He thought it could be too country for the band. They needed a song and recorded it anyway and it sounded great. He added the solos at the end to make it more of an Allman Brothers song.

The Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead were not known for their top ten hits. This is their highest-charting single. It also helped propel the album Brothers and Sisters to the top of the Billboard Album Chart chart, solidifying the band’s status as one of the leading acts of the Southern rock genre…although they were more of a blues, jazz, rock, and jam band.

The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts #1 in Canada, and #42 in the UK. What helped the album was Ramblin’ Man and Jessica, two of their most classic songs. They toured with this album and played sold-out stadiums and arenas.

Ramblin’ Man peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts and #7 in Canada in 1973.

Just found out that Dickey Betts passed away today at age 80.

Dickey Betts: “When I was a kid, my dad was in construction and used to move the family band and forth between central Florida’s east and west coasts, I’d go to one school for a year and then the other the next. I had two sets of friends and spent a lot of time in the back seat of a Greyhound bus. Ramblin’ was in my blood.”

The Allman’s November 2nd, 1972 performance went down at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Portions of the show were broadcast on ABC’s In Concert program. In this clip below we get to see rare footage of the post-Duane, pre-Berry death lineup of the band which featured Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Jaimoe, Chuck Leavell, Butch Trucks, and Oakley. Barry Oakley would die 9 days after this concert…it was his last concert with the band and Chuck Leavell’s first concert with them. This was before the single was released.

Ramblin’ Man

Lord, I was born a ramblin’ manTryin’ to make a livin’ and doin’ the best I canAnd when it’s time for leavin’I hope you’ll understandThat I was born a ramblin’ man

Well, my father was a gambler down in GeorgiaAnd he wound up on the wrong end of a gunAnd I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound busRollin’ down highway 41

Lord, I was born a ramblin’ manTryin’ to make a livin’ and doin’ the best I canAnd when it’s time for leavin’I hope you’ll understandThat I was born a ramblin’ man

Alright

I’m on my way to New Orleans this mornin’Leaving out of Nashville, TennesseeThey’re always having a good time down on the bayouLord, and Delta women think the world of me

Lord, I was born a ramblin’ manTryin’ to make a livin’ and doin’ the best I canAnd when it’s time for leavin’I hope you’ll understandThat I was born a ramblin’ man

Lord, I was born a ramblin’ manLord, I was born a ramblin’ manLord, I was born a ramblin’ manLord, I was born a ramblin’ man

Allman Brothers – Wasted Words

There is nothing better than sitting back on a cool Fall day and listening to the Allman Brothers.

The album Brothers and Sisters was released in August 1973. This was almost two years after Duane Allman had died. Around a year later on November 11, 1972…their bassist Berry Oakley died on a motorcycle within a few blocks of where Duane crashed. Some of the band members have said…Berry died on the day that Duane died but his body just kept moving until a little over a year later. He never got over Duane dying and his drug and alcohol use escalated. He was on his motorcycle and hit a bus. He went back to his house and they took him to a hospital where he died a short time later.

Let me say this about Berry Oakley. He is sadly overlooked today. Not only was he a superb blues bass player but he had something that not all blues bassists have. He had a great sense of melody…I would compare him to Paul McCartney in that department. In the middle of those jams, you would hear the bass playing these wonderful countermelodies…he was unique in that way.

The Allmans recorded Brother and Sisters between October and December of 1972. It was a monster hit for the Brothers. It contains the last songs that Oakley ever played on. Berry Oakley played on this song and the huge hit Ramblin’ Man that he recorded shortly before his death. They had try-outs for another bass player but Jaimo’s friend Lamar Williams won out easily. He played with the band until they broke up briefly in 1976. He developed lung cancer at the age of 32 from exposure to Agent Orange during his Vietnam service and died in 1983.

Gregg Allman wrote this and Dickey Betts played a slide on the song. He didn’t like playing slide because of Duane. When Duane died instead of replacing him with another guitar player…they recruited the great piano player Chuck Leavell. That was a smart thing to do because of the comparisons to Duane on whoever would have taken that spot. Dickey had to play slide when they played their older songs but it’s something he stayed away from on newer songs when he could.

The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #42 in the UK. What helped the album was Ramblin’ Man and Jessica, two of their most classic songs. They toured with this album and played sold-out stadiums and arenas. A little later they would lease The Starship… the same one that Led Zeppelin used in the seventies. They were up there with The Who, Led Zeppelin, and the monster bands of the seventies.

The first time I heard of the Allman Brothers was on SNL where Dan Ackroyd played Jimmy Carter talking down a caller on acid. I was around 9 when I heard it and it stuck. I have it below.

Wasted Words

Can you tell me, tell me, friend, just exactly where I’ve been?
Is that so much to ask I’ll pay you back no matter what the task
You seem really sure ’bout something I don’t know,
Take that load off, looks like chest’s about to go
Your wasted words already been heard, are you really god, yes or no?

Well, all day and half the night you’re walkin’ round lookin’ such a fright
Good is it me or is it you?
I’d make a wager and I’d hope you lose
Time’s gone, looks like Rome is ’bout to fall,
Next time take the elevator, please don’t crawl
Your wasted words so absurd, are you really Satan, yes or no?
Tell me now baby?
Ooh hoo
Oh

Well, I ain’t no saint and you sure as hell ain’t no savior
Every other Christmas I would practice good behavior
That was then, this is now, don’t ask me to be mister clean
Baby, I don’t know how
Ring my phone ’bout ten more times, we will see,
Find that broke down line and let it be
Your wasted words will never be heard, go on home baby and watch it on TV

Weekday soap-box specialty, you know what I’m talkin’ ’bout now
By the way, this song’s for you, sincerely, me

Allman Brothers – Southbound

Just the opening licks to this song hook me for the rest of the way. Southbound was on the number 1 album Brothers and Sisters in 1973.

The making of this album was anything but easy. On October 29, 1971, Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle wreck. He was the undisputed leader of the band and the source of their music. After he died it hit the members hard including his brother Gregg Allman. They all agreed to continue on though. They had just released Live At Fillmore East (selected for preservation in the Library of Congress)…along with Live At Leeds considered the top live rock album of all time.

It was just climbing up the charts and money started for once to roll in for the band. They were working on the follow-up album Eat A Peach when Duane was killed. They regrouped and finished the album. It was a hybrid of studio/live recordings. Dickey Betts the other guitar player took a crash course on slide guitar.

The one member that could not get over Duane’s death was bass player Berry Oakley. He was not just another bass player. His playing reminds me of Paul McCartney in a way because it was so melodic. After Duane died he pretty much gave up and was drinking constantly. The other band members tried to babysit him on tour but nothing worked. Gregg Allman said: Berry didn’t want to die but he didn’t want to live either.

Duane Allman and Berry Oakley

On November 11, 1972, three blocks from where Duane was killed, Berry ran straight into a City Bus with his motorcycle. Some say it was on purpose because there were no skid marks at the scene. Someone took him home after he refused to go to the hospital. Three hours later he was rushed to the hospital, delirious and in pain, and died of cerebral swelling caused by a fractured skull. The Doctors said even if he would have gone straight to the hospital after the accident…he couldn’t have been saved.

The Allmans again decided to carry on. They didn’t replace Duane at first with another guitar player…they replaced him with a piano player named Chuck Leavell who would later play with the Rolling Stones among others. Oakley was replaced by Lamar Williams, an old friend of drummer Jaimoe. Lamar would die early also in 1983 of lung cancer. His doctors believed that the disease was derived from exposure to Agent Orange during his Vietnam service. The album sessions started in the Autumn of 1972 and Oakley’s bass can be heard on two songs… “Wasted Words” and their huge hit “Ramblin’ Man.”

Lamar Williams

Lamar Williams plays bass on Southbound… Southbound was written by Dickey Betts with Gregg on lead vocals.

Southbound

Well I’m Southbound, Lord I’m comin’ home to you
Well I’m Southbound, baby, Lord I’m comin’ home to you
I got that old lonesome feelin’ that’s sometimes called the blues
Well I been workin’ every night, travelin’ every day
Oh, I been workin’ every night, traveling every day
Oh you can tell your other man, sweet daddy’s on the way
Aww, ya better believe
Well I’m Southbound
Whoa I’m Southbound
Oh you better tell your other man, sweet daddy’s on his way
Got your hands full now baby, as soon as I hit that door
You’ll have your hands full now woman, just as soon as I hit that door
Well I’m gonna make it on up to you for all the things you should have had before
Lord, I’m Southbound
Oh I’m Southbound, baby
Whoa I’m Southbound, yeah baby
Well I’m gonna make it on up to you for all the things you should have had before